Saudi Arabia and Canada will fully restore diplomatic relations, the two countries’ foreign ministries have announced, after they were suspended in 2018 over a dispute over human rights abuses in the oil-exporting Gulf kingdom.

The decision follows talks held last year by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok, Saudi diplomacy explained yesterday in a press release.

“It has been decided to restore the level of diplomatic relations with Canada to the previous status,” the text reads.

In 2018, Riyadh expelled Canada’s ambassador, recalled its own, forced thousands of students to leave, and froze all commercial transactions and investment placements.

The kingdom had declared at the time that it would not tolerate “diktats” and “interference in its internal affairs” by Canada, as it accepted Canadian criticism of the suppression of the opposition in the kingdom.

Ottawa was calling for the release of detained human rights defenders.

For her part, in an almost identically worded announcement, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie said that the parties had agreed to “appoint new ambassadors” and clarified that Jean-Philippe Lido will take over the post.

The reconciliation is based on “the desire of both sides to restore their diplomatic relations on the basis of mutual respect and common interests,” according to the text.

The announcement of the two states is added to a series of moves by Saudi Arabia to re-approach with various states, with the most spectacular ones being with Iran – its great rival at the regional level -, as well as with Syria.

Yesterday, Wednesday, Iran announced that it named a new ambassador to Riyadh, after more than seven years of rift.

The Sunni monarchy has taken initiatives to secure ceasefires in Sudan, where two generals have been in a war for power since April 15, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015, leading a military alliance, in the war between the internationally recognized government and to the Shia Houthi rebels.

In 2021, Canadian exports to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, were worth $2.2 billion and imports $2.4 billion, according to official Canadian government data.

Canadian imports were almost exclusively petroleum and petrochemical products.

The Gulf monarchy is often criticized by human rights groups for egregious abuses, particularly its crackdown on dissent and feminists.

In recent months, it has again come under fire, especially for the extremely heavy penalties imposed on citizens who criticize the government through social networking sites.